The present invention relates to dry film decorative panels, which are either painted or covered with metal or metal appearance film, and decorative panels which are utilized as press plates to create a plurality of further decorative panels having substantially similar decorative design thereon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,727,013 to Pentak et al. discloses the use of creating decorative designs using dry film photeresist. Pentak also discloses abrading or xe2x80x9croughing upxe2x80x9d the surface by acid etching or sand blasting and discloses the use of multiple layers of dry film. The dry film photeresist is exposed to a low level UV light to create a top polymerized crust which protects the unpolymerized thickness of film layer from being washed off by development solution. The film is only partially cured. U.S. Pat. No. 4,652,513 to Pentak et al. is identical to U.S. Pat. No. 4,727,013.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,702,786 to Tallman discloses the use of photoresist for decorative panels.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,455,320 to Syrmis discloses the use of photoresist design press plate for making chocolate candy with relief surface features.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,065,406 to Silverman discloses a foil cover placed over smooth and rough surfaces and the use of photoresist for decorative designs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,264,714 to Trausch discloses the use of photoresist.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a dry film decorative panels which are easy to manufacture, enable the designer-manufacturer to create multiple designs utilizing multiple layers of dry film and produce a relief or a plurality of reliefs on a substrate which can either be painted or covered with metal foil or plastic sheet foil having a metal look.
It is an additional object to create reliefs of multiple heights on a substrate.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a quick and easy method to produce a press plate made of a dry film decorative panel enabling a manufacturer to quickly produce the design, reproduce the design in a castable material or compound to form a substantially harder press plate and produce multiple panels having substantially the same decorative design as the original dry film decorative panel. In this manner, press plates are created for short production runs where traditional stainless steel plates which are far too expensive to use in such short manufacturing cycles.
The method of making a dry film decorative panel covered with paint or covered with metal or plastic sheet film designed to look like metal includes providing a substrate, at least one sheet of dry photoresist film, developer wash for the dry film and at least one art work stencil. Preferably, any line art work can be utilized as the art work stencil. The dry film is placed intermediate the art work and on the substrate thereby forming a layered composite. The layered composite is exposed to UV light for a predetermined period of time to polymerize the exposed areas. The art work is thereafter removed from the layered composite. Non-UV exposed dry film layer portions are washed away utilizing developer wash. The resulting UV exposed and polymerized dry film portions create reliefs on the substrate. Multiple layer reliefs are created by repeating the aforementioned steps. The relief and supporting substrate is painted to form a decorative panel or is covered with metal or metal-like plastic sheet foil. The foil is adhered to the relief supporting substrate to form the decorative panel. In another embodiment, the method of repetitively reproducing decorative panels from resinous material utilizes a press plate cast from the dry film decorative panel. Rather than painting the relief and supporting substrate or covering the relief and supporting substrate with foil, the relief and supporting substrate are used to create an internegative using resinous or castable compound material. From the substrate bearing the relief, a mold is created using suitable molding compounds, such as resin, plastic, silicone rubber, plaster, etc. This mold serves as an internegative. A positive press plate is then created from the internegative. The positive press plate bears substantially the same decorative design as the dry film decorative panel. By repetitively pressing the press plate into the resinous material and other substrates such as paper or other formable substrates or other castable compounds which harden when removed form the mold, multiple decorative panels are created having substantially the same decorative design as the dry film decorative panel.